


Best Laid Plans

by Asymptotical



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), BAMF Women, F/F, F/M, Flirting, Hurt/Comfort, Married Couple, Multi, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 04:36:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20754446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asymptotical/pseuds/Asymptotical
Summary: Once Alistair and Anora realized they both had fairly permanent crushes on the same person, there was only one solution.





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Settiai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/gifts).

Alistair was supposed to have returned by lunchtime. 

It wasn't abnormal for him to get sidetracked. He had a penchant for getting distracted by every little thing. 

Anora refused to be worried. He was fully capable of taking care of himself and incredibly easily distracted by anyone who might be in need of help. She hadn't scheduled for as much extra travel time in this case, assuming that he would be more incentivized than normal to hurry back, but Anora supposed that if Alistair ever *did* leave someone in peril because of something as frivolous is planning to jointly seduce the Warden Commander then she'd have to have him checked for possession. 

So she put it out of her mind, where putting it out of her mind meant sending a runner out to find him, and invited the Warden to a slightly less private, though still isolated, meal instead. 

It was probably for the best. They needed to be subtle and delicate with this sort of thing and for all Alistair tired his hardest, he was rarely either. It wouldn't do to wreck a friendship and strain relations with a valued ally just because they both happened to have spent and absolutely untenable amount of time talking about their mutual long standing crushes on her. 

It probably wasn't the basis for the relationship that anyone would have wanted for either of them, but complaining about Elissa Cousland's ability to flirt without anyone else seeming to notice did at least confirm that neither of them were imagining things. It was also very hard to be too worried about power and politics when her husband was sauntering around their room attempting to demonstrate how the Warden walked when she was feeling cocky. 

Anora was _fairly_ certain that Elissa was flirting with them on purpose, which should hopefully make this not a disaster. Elissa had managed to make Anora blush a fair few times and always seemed delighted when it happened. Anora had _seen_ her laughing at Alistair as he came away from conversations with his face brilliantly red. 

Still, it never hurt to be cautious. 

So she flirted subtly, just enough that Elissa's eyes occasionally narrowed as though she was questioning if it was on purpose. The Warden didn't reciprocate with comments any more obvious than she would usually make, but seeing as Anora was a _married woman_ she had been expecting that. The point was to lay the groundwork before her husband stammered all over the courtyard of their intentions. 

The evening was going exactly according to plan. The adjusted 'Alistair is late' plan, that was. 

Right up to the point that the elf came in the window. 

"Alistair may be in trouble," he said, without preamble, staying perched on the windowsill like a demented bird. "I intended to deal with it without troubling you, but they appear to have already moved." 

"He's late," Anora said, hands twisting in her napkin before she realized what she was doing and dropped the thing back onto the table. 

"You said that's not abnormal, though," Elissa said, clearly trying for comforting even as Anora could all but see her planning exactly how she was going to go about fixing this. 

Violently, no doubt. 

"Yes, but I expected him back on time this time and scheduled accordingly. He wouldn't have stopped unless it was important." 

"Or unless he was attacked and forced to do so." Elissa added grimly. "Do you know the path he was taking?" 

"Yes." Anora stood up. She could see Ser Cauthrien hovering in the corner of her vision, clearly distressed by the strange man appearing in the window. A decent amount of the nobles in view had started to notice as well. "Go get your armor. I'll have horses waiting for you." 

They could be subtle about this. 

Anora saw no reason to be. 

* * *

Anora had never been one to be idle. By the time Elissa came bounding back downstairs, her elven friend close on her heels, she'd sent trustworthy palace guards to make certain nothing would impede them at the gates and had the city guard roused to ensure that the streets were kept clear until the Warden had passed. She had given serious thought to sending Ser Cauthrien along with them before deciding that not only was Ser Cauthrien not suited to moving as quickly as the Warden and her friend, but leaving herself open to a secondary attack would only make the situation worse. 

It was tempting to send an entire battalion with them, surely no one would fault her for doing so, but speed could be paramount and if the Warden hadn't _asked_ for troops then she likely expected not to need them based on whatever information the elf had given her while they fetched her gear. This was the woman who had walked into the deep roads with a handful of random people and impressed the Legion of the Dead. Anora had to trust that she knew what she was doing. 

And while she was gone, Anora would do what _she_ was good at. Smooth out the politics and figure out where to start searching to determine exactly who she needed to expose for attempting to assassinate her husband. 

It was almost certain that whoever it was intended for it to appear to be Anora's fault, their marriage was still too early for that not to be the case. It couldn't be allowed to stand. This wasn't _Orlais_. If they had a grievance they could bring it up at a landsmeet or request a duel like civilized people. 

* * *

By the time they returned it was nearly dawn. Anora had a list of leads and a set of fingernail imprints in her palms from the stress of waiting. 

Seeing Alistair flung over Elissa's saddle had Anora biting the inside of her cheek to keep from reacting. She would _not_ be the sort of person who would fly into hysterics over an assumption. 

"He's alive." Elissa called out, over the sound of the gates clanging closed behind her and the yells of guards as everything Anora had prepared started to set into motion. 

Anora couldn't stop the sigh of relief from escaping her lips. 

The Warden pulled Alistair down from the saddle and into her arms. Normally, Anora would have been admiring that strength, especially since her husband was still in quite a bit of armor. Wardens were… otherworldly, and little things like bridal carrying a king in full plate proved it. 

Or maybe Elissa was just that strong. 

Anora was too focused on her husband's ashen face to properly appreciate it. She half thought that maybe if everything worked out, she'd bring it up later. 

But that required everything to work out. 

She stepped away as Elissa escorted Alistair up to his and Anora's room, the healers Anora had waiting trailing behind. Probably not in _that_ much danger then, or she was sure Elissa would be laying him out right here in the courtyard rather than delaying. Possibly it had been poison; their assassin friend would have known how to deal with that. 

Comforted that Elissa still had things under control, Anora made certain that she hadn't left anything undone. There were guards to be called back, people to reassure that the king was alive and well, trusted diplomats to hand the situation over to so that they could soothe the nobles with pretty but ultimately empty words until Anora decided exactly what she wanted to do about it, and she needed to ensure that only the most trusted of their guards were on duty anywhere near the royal suite or the guest room housing the Warden. Nothing would be moving in or out of the castle from this point and she'd had them turning things over enough to be reasonably sure that there were no dangers within, but it never hurt to be certain everything was going according to plan. 

When she reached her room the healers had already been shooed away. Alistair was tucked into bed, his face looking considerably rosier than it had in the courtyard, and Elissa was collapsed into a chair looking like she needed the sort of drink one found in a horrifically dirty tavern. 

"He got distracted by the 'oh won't you help me' trick again." Elissa said, rubbing a gloved hand over her face. "He _always_ gets distracted by the ' oh won't you help me' trick." 

Anora sat on the edge of the bed, frowning at her husband. "I'm sure it's easy, seeing as he encourages so many people to legitimately ask him for help." 

"It's always blatant, he's just shit at identifying a liar in the middle of a crisis. I don't know how he hasn't managed to run into some horrific fate in the court here yet." 

"It's _Ferelden_," Anora chided. 

Elissa raised an eyebrow at her. 

"I steer him away from the worst of it. Most don't try, since he tends to be more than happy to tell me about all his boring political interactions so I can deal with them. He's smart enough to know which battles aren't his to fight." 

"Yeah that was more what I was expecting." She reached out, lightly flicking Alistair's ear. "Dumbass." 

Alistair winced, blinking blearily awake. 

"You're dumb," Elissa informed him. 

Alistair muttered something Anora couldn't really hear in response, but he at least seemed to be waking up quickly. 

"Really dumb. Anora back me up here, your husband is dumb." 

"I am not," Alistair complained, moving to sit up before Elissa shoved him back down onto the pillows. "Ow. Whatever happened to being gentle with wounded people?" 

"Have I ever?" 

He gave Anora a beseeching look. 

"Seeing as the Commander has actually dealt with your injuries before, I'll defer to her wisdom," she answered, hiding a smile. He hadn't taken long to bounce back to himself, at least. 

Alistair sighed, burrowing back into the blankets and glaring balefully at the both of them. "It's not like I _meant_ to get poisoned." 

"You never do." Elissa comforted, patting his head as she stood up. "Let me go tell Zevran that his antidote worked in time." 

Anora wasn't sure where the elf was, but presumably their assassin friend had decided against coming in the window this time. 

A good choice, considering the amount of archers that Anora had on duty at the moment. 

Elissa was probably about two steps out the door when Alistair looked at Anora, almost comically dismayed, and whispered, "I ruined it!" 

Anora sighed. "You didn't ruin anything. I'm just glad you didn't get yourself killed." 

"I really didn't mean to get sidetracked this time." 

"I know." She took his hand. "It's nothing that can't be easily adjusted and not that important in the long run." 

Her husband ran his thumb over her knuckles, pouting. "We were planning the 'flirt with Elissa plan' for _months_, though! I only had to keep out of trouble for one day and I didn't." 

"What's the flirt with Elissa plan?" Elissa asked from the doorway. She sounded…less surprised than Anora would have expected. 

They both paused, staring at each other. Anora was halfway tempted to tell him that _now_ he had ruined the 'flirt with Elissa' plan, but he had that look on his face that said he was about to throw the whole plan out the window. 

"Well," Alistair said, before Anora could decide exactly how to salvage this situation, "We've got this really cute friend named Elissa and we were planning to flirt with her a lot. There was going to be chocolate involved. And probably horseback riding. Anora kept knocking down the 'only done in books' type wooing things but I'm gonna sneak some in there." 

Sometimes, occasionally, Alistair could say the right thing. Or at least mostly the right thing. Hopefully. If Alistair wasn't squeezing at her hand, Anora would have thought he was barely nervous. 

Elissa's eyes flickered between them as the King and Queen tried to pretend that they weren't anxiously waiting for her reaction. Then she pressed a hand to her face. For a half second Anora was worried until a _giggle_ slipped out. "I can't believe you two." 

Elissa dropped her hand, focusing on Anora. "You _were_ flirting with me at dinner then!" 

Alistair gave her a betrayed look. "You started without me?" 

"Barely," Elissa reassured him. "It was very confusing because I couldn't tell if she was just in a good mood and I was reading too much into it or…" 

"Oh I was in a good mood," Anora answered, allowing herself to relax for the first time since the ex-assassin had shown up in the window. "I would be in an even better one now, except for the fact that my husband has gone and nearly gotten himself killed." 

"Zevran left to look into that, by the way," Elissa said. 

Anora tapped her free hand on her leg. She hadn't had much to do with Elissa's assassin. Given the… history there, it seemed better to avoid it, but… "I have a list of people to start investigating, if he'd like it. My people have the list as well." 

"Oh definitely. I'll pass it on in the morning?" 

"Are we murdering people? I thought we agreed that this wasn't Orlais so we weren't going to be murdering people." 

"Of course not," Anora soothed. "This is Ferelden. We'll conduct an investigation and then expose and disgrace them before carrying out a just execution." 

"If any of them try to fight back I'm totally murdering them though," Elissa added. 

"It's not murder if it's a _fight_." 

"I will also stab them in the back as needed." 

"Elissa!" 

"They poisoned you. They officially started it." 

"Those were _Crows_." 

"So?" 

"It can wait until tomorrow," Anora interjected. "No one is going out to do anything until then." 

"I feel like it would probably be inappropriate for me to stay right now, considering, but I also really don't want to leave the two of you unguarded in case we missed any of the Crows." 

"How is it inappropriate _after_ we start flirting with you but not before?" Alistair pouted, blushing slightly. 

"Not a clue but it feels like it should be?" 

"Go change and come back." Anora said. "No one is going to be getting up to anything untoward tonight, not with Alistair recovering from poison and assassins on the loose." 

"I mean, if you two want to-- Actually you know what, just ignore me." Alistair hid his face in his hands, bright red from the aborted attempt at flirting. Probably for the better, he made a poor lech. 

Elissa didn't seem to mind, if the giggles trailing behind her as she left the room were any indication. 

"I entirely ruined the plan," Alistair said again once the door was shut, looking mournfully up at her. 

Anora untangled their hands, brushing her fingers fondly over his hair before making her way to their closet. "You did, but I think it may have turned out for the better this way." 


End file.
